Most of the conference calls that I’m involved with go pretty smoothly. People dial in, the system says something like “The leader has not yet arrived”, and you hear music until the organizer shows up. Give or take five minutes, the call starts on time and without any major hassles.

Occasionally, though, there’s a hiccup. For instance, I dialed into a call last week that never got off the ground. There was a scheduling mixup, so the organizer never joined the call and the rest of us just heard music. After ten minutes or so, I gave up and sent the organizer an email to reschedule.

These mixups happen from time to time, and generally aren’t a big deal. But the folks who design conference calling services could learn something from this experience. In particular, why make all the other participants wait on hold if the organizer hasn’t shown up?

The better approach is to trigger a different message after a few minutes of wait time. In that message, the automated system could give people the option to receive a call back, text message, or email when the leader dials in. That way, nobody would have to waste their time waiting on hold for an extended period, and the conference calling service would make things a little bit easier for participants and organizers alike.